GLENN HAUSER'S SHORTWAVE/DX REPORT 99-39, Sept 12, 1999
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** AUSTRALIA. See item below about leasing offshore SW BC facilities
to reach western Indonesia! But not a word about this on RA's Feedback
this week, UT Sat 0030 on 21740, just mostly horror stories by
correspondents in Timor and about RA's special website on East Timor
already mentioned here (Glenn Hauser, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL
BROADCASTING)
** AUSTRALIA. Analysis: East Timor - the media scene
This weekend Australian radio is to extend its services
into Indonesia. ABC managing director Brian Johns said that the
corporation had leased offshore short-wave transmission
facilities to allow the service to reach central and western
Indonesia. Six hours of programming will be provided daily.
Source: Monitoring research 10 Sep 99 (C) (BBC Monitoring)
[very brief pertinent excerpt by gh]
** AUSTRALIA [non]. Many thanks for your good program every week.
Radio Australia has new relay via Radio Taipei International
------------------------------------------------------------
Radio Australia's Indonesian program is now on 11550kHz from 2300 to
2400 UTC via RTI. According to Mr. Mitsuo Yamada, Japan, this new relay
started 2300 UTC on Sept. 11.
So RTI Korean service which was broadcast between 2300-2400 UTC on
11550kHz is now broadcast 2100-2200 UTC on the same frequency.
According to Mrs. Baik Cho Mi, chief of RTI Korean, she knew schedule
change after 0800 UTC on Sept. 11.
And RDP International is broadcast between 2200-2300
and 1000-1100 UTC on the same frequency as you know.
(Toru Yamashita, in charge of Radio Japan's "DX Corner" in the Korean
Service) Asian Broadcasting Institute http://www.246.ne.jp/~abi/
(via Hauser)
We indeed heard R. Australia opening Indonesian Sept 12 at 2300 on
11550 with news theme and Warta Berita; transmitter failed at 2309:30
as reception was diminishing and was still off at 2318 (Hauser)
** CHINA. China Radio URL. Hello, Glenn. I have been using the listing
of international websites for some time and passing it on to friends.
However, I noticed that China Radio hasn't been hooking up. Now when
you click on it, it asks you for a password!!?? The correct URL should
be http://www.cri.com.cn (Blake Finley, San Francisco, 9 Sep, REVIEW
OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING)
** COSTA RICA. It almost snuk up on us, RFPI's 12th anniversary Fiesta
on the Air. Heard announcement that it would be UT Fri Sept 17 at 0000-
0400, including Bangladeshi love songs! Call in, toll free in
US or NAm: 1-800-794-9365. Some prizes will be given away, as also
mentioned on this week's RFPI Mailbag. The new quarterly schedule Sept
- Nov is now in effect, and one change is moving the Friday Mailbag
half an hour earlier so it immediately follows WOR at 2000, UT Sat
0400, 1200 (Glenn Hauser, Sept 11, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL
BROADCASTING)
** ECUADOR. Yes I do know what happened and Glen's assumption that it
was the STL is right on!! We have heard our multi-channel microwave
between Quito (studios) and Pifo (Transmitters) fading for more than a
month. We did all of the obvious stuff like realigning the microwave
dishes, trying to correlate the fading to storms in Quito, adjusting
the channels in various ways to increase the signal level, etc. However
it was not until the 7th of Sept (two days after Glen's report) that
we discovered that one of the microwave channels was over modulating
and causing the rest of the channels to fade as a result. We have
corrected the problem now so we should not experience any more problems
like that. Thanks for being so attentive! Take care,
(Doug Weber, dweber@hcjb.org.ec Frequency Manager & Engineer,
HCJB, The Voice of the Andes) Regarding our previous item
** IRELAND [non]. I'm sorry to be (in part) late with info on RTE's
annual Shortwave Specials for the All-Ireland Gaelic Hurling & Football
Finals. It seems that RTE does not care too much about updating its
"Overseas" or "Special Events" webpages nor its "Aertel Radio-Extra"
page when SW is the medium. The specials are a nice opportunity for
Irish folk overseas to hear again voices and traditions from home and
for others to get a taste of Irish domestic sports broadcasting.
The Hurling Final was relayed today Sunday Sep 12 from 1429 to 1602 UT
on the following frequencies.
13720* to North America
15240 to Central America
15270 to South East Asia
15360* to Australia
21640* to Africa
The service will get another outing in two weeks time for the Gaelic
Football Final. I can confirm three of the frequencies for today, those
with an asterisk, but those without were not audible in my part of the
world. [that would be Sept 25-26?]
Educated guesses all round at the transmitters sites, as a phonecall by
me just before broadcast time to the nearest RTE studio was no help.
(Finbarr O'Driscoll........Ireland, Sept 12, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL
BROADCASTING)
** MADAGASCAR. Subject: Re: Mad Mix Organization: Radio Netherlands
Glenn, Just an update: the problem at Madagascar appears to be due to
RF from one of the shortwave transmitters getting into the satellite
receiver. It is proving difficult to fix, but rest assured that the
people here and the engineers in Madagascar are working to try and
resolve the problem. 73, (Andy Sennitt, RN, Sept 10) Another follow-
up to a previous item in our reports (gh)
** NETHERLANDS. Andy Sennitt replies to Tom Welch, previously quoted
here: Hi Tom,
I've passed your comments on to my colleagues. While you are perfectly
entitled to your opinion, and our format may not be to everyone's
taste, ou are completely wrong in your belief that our output is
"designed specifically for an American audience". North America, in
fact, is not even the primary target area for Radio Netherlands. We
have much larger audiences, percentage wise, in Africa and Asia, which
is why special regional versions of Newsline are made for those areas.
Your claim that the news agenda is selected to "pander" to an American
audience is simply not true. We have one newsroom that provides the
material for our four language services, including our service for
Dutch abroad. The news agenda is decided according to what is deemed
important here, not in Washington. But given that The Netherlands is an
active member of NATO and other international organizations, it stands
to reason that the news agenda will on many occasions be similar, if
not identical. If you find that 'hard to understand", so be it.
At the end of the day, you are entitled not to like our programmes. It
isn't compulsory :-)
BTW, if you wrote to us previously by E-mail it's possible your message
got lost as we had several problems with the mail server in recent
weeks. Everything seems to be on an even keel now.
Kind regards, (Andy Sennitt, Radio Netherlands, Sept 8)
** TIMOR EAST [non]. RDP - Radiodifusao Portuguesa - is beginning
special broadcasts for the martyred territory of Timor Loro Sae,
in Portuguese and in Tetum (language of Timor), on shortwave as well
as satellite. The SW schedule is:
10.00 - 21.00 h UTC - 17 740 kHz (16m) - 300 kW
10.00 - 11.00 h UTC - 11 550 kHz (25m) - 250 kW
22.00 - 23.00 h UTC - 11 550 kHz (25m) - 250 kW
21.00 - 10.00 h UTC - 17 600 kHz (16m) - 300 kW
For more info, consult this website: http://www1.rdp.pt/timor/index.htm
For info on RDP's various transmissions: http://www.rdp.pt
But the station in Portugal which has distinguished itself the most in
news coverage of the monstruous happenings in Timor Loro Sae is called
TSF and transmits from Lisbon. It's only on FM and covers almost all of
the country. TSF has many of the best journalists on Portuguese radio
and is heard by the ruling classes of this country. There is not a
minister in Portugal who does not listen to TSF first thing in the
morning. TSF has broadcast about 150 hours nonstop Timorese coverage.
Can be heard via internet at:
http://www.tsf.pt
The words "Loro Sae" mean "Sol Nascente" in Tetum. Timor Loro Sae
should be the official name of the country which its people so
hopefully would like to see independent, and who are so criminally
being massacred, in accordance with a plan cynically premeditated and
coldly executed. (Fernando de Sousa Ribeiro, Porto, Portugal,
radioescutas newsgroup, translated by Hauser)
Portugal has evidently stepped up its SW direct to 24 hours a day on
17740 and new 17600; 11550 are the Taiwan relays, tho not mentioned
here. As Joe Hanlon observes, it seems unlikely the 16m band would hold
up 24 hours a day on a Portugal-Timor circuit, but we were hearing
17600 fairly well with moderate fading from 2200 past 2300 Sept 12;
included some rather haunting music. "Loro Sae" in Tetum means "rising
sun" - I bet it's corrupted Portuguese for "the gold is coming" (Glenn
Hauser, OK)
** TIMOR EAST [non]. An historic transmission from RDP on 17600 pro-
Liberation of East Timor. There were a lot of interviews, commentaries,
from various world personalities. It caught my attention because the
Portuguese being spoken was neither from Brasil nor Portugal. So I
listened avidly for more than an hour, hearing besides interviews,
music of struggle, and curiously, some religious songs, evangelical
and Catholic, which we know here in Brasil. Heard on 17600 starting
at 2330 Sept 11. Perhaps will be on the air again the next day
(Rudolf Grimm, Brazil, radioescutas newsgroup Sept 11 translated
by Hauser)
** U S A. I hypothesize: IBB decided 5985 was a good inband channel
they should grab before someone else (Mexico during other? hours
notwithstanding), especially since VOA Delano left it for 9770 after
1000 some months ago; more valuable than 5890. Also puts two Marti
frequencies rather close together on Cuban Russian analog sets, easier
to run across. However, once the Cuban jammers catch on to 5985, they
will probably run them beyond Marti hours, damaging XERMX much more,
despite Mexico's relatively friendly relations with Cuba (Glenn Hauser,
REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING)
** U S A. Here's what happened during WRMI's DX sesquihour UT Sun Sept
12 at 0330-0500 on 7465: Wavescan from the week of Aug 8, and at 0400
unheralded repeat of last week's Scream of the Butterfly -- at least
the first few minutes of it sounded very familiar like what we heard
last week (Glenn Hauser, REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING)
CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL DX CLUB MESSENGER INTERVIEWS GLENN HAUSER
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NOTE: Our September edition includes a special 7 page interview with
Mr. Glenn Hauser, host of the syndicated radio programme, World of
Radio, editor of Shortwave/DX Report and Review of International
Broadcasting On Line Data, plus many other related activities and
publications. Mr. Hauser recently celebrated the 1000th airing of his
weekly show, World of Radio. (Sept RadioHF Newsletter) ###